The Nelson Narrative

By some miracle I have a few extra minutes this morning to whip out a quick post.  Yesterday was the first day of school.  It went really well.  We made lunches the night before and the girls picked out their outfits and laid them out.  Olivia wanted her hair French braided and I don't really know how (I think I could remember if I had plenty of time) so I asked one of their friend's mom who is 3 doors down from us and she was happy to do it and they got up early enough to have plenty of time and all that. I dropped them off about as early as I could (8:45) because I had a 9:30 meeting to get to, and that went super easy and I made it to work with about 10 minutes to spare. Kayley has been straightening her hair a lot lately and I love it (but I love her curls, too) Olivia had a mint in her mouth, thus the weird expression

This was the last full week of summer break.  So bittersweet.  I look forward to not having to worry about sitters (except for early dismissal Fridays but that will be easy, especially once my work location moves) and just being on a normal schedule, but I dread the craziness and having to make lunches every night (although they can totally help now). I took Monday off and took the girls to the neighbor's eclipse viewing party. Reflection through the trees All the kids with their glasses on After that I took them out to lunch at Subway and then we went shopping for school supplies.  When we got home they sorted them into their individual piles. Kayley's Olivia's and a few things for both classes, like tissue Tuesday through Thursday we had a back up babysitter, because our summer nanny is back at college (and Paul was off the last two weeks so we didn't need one until Tuesday). Today (Friday) was our sort-of annual Nelson Family Day of Fun....

School starts next week and it has a new start time, so I’m in the process of figuring out our new schedule.  Last year school started at 8:35.  I could drop off the girls as early as 8:15 which allowed me to get to work by 9:00, but now school isn’t going to start until 9:05, which means I can’t drop off until 8:45, which means I won’t get to work until 9:30ish, and won’t get home until 6:45ish.  That sucks.  6:15 to 6:30 was already way too late.  But soon my work group will be moving to a new location 5 minutes from home (AHHHH!!!! I’m SO excited!  More on the that in a future post) so then I’ll be able to start work at 9:00 and end at 5:30 and be home by 5:35 or 5:40 (unless I walk, and then I’ll be home by 6:00ish.  Still way better).  But in the meantime, here is our proposed schedule: 7:00-8:00 – I get up and get ready 8:00 – Get the girls up, they get ready, eat breakfast 8:40 – Leave 8:45 – Drop off at school 9:30 - Arrive at...

Well, not a whole lot to report this week.  Paul was off this week so he got to do some fun stuff with the girls. Monday they went shopping for all of their soccer gear, one day they were running around trying to find eclipse glasses and ended up visting his work since they were in the area, they went to lunch at Chick-fil-a for the first time (we've had it for a few years but it's not super close so they've never been.  It's close to my work so I was able to go once and frankly, I can take or leave it), they checked out the humane society for a dog but didn't find one, and Friday they went to Northwest Trek Wildlife Park.  They mainly wanted to try the zip line that we didn't do the last time we were there, but I guess they weren't too impressed with the one that they were able to do (there is a bigger one for people 18 and over).  They still had fun, though, and got to see lots of cool animals. Then, over the weekend, I took the girls school shopping.  A...

I was family-less last week!  Paul was on PTO and is again this week, and I'm not, so he took the girls (and at the last minute, their friend) to Crescent Bar.  I was really looking forward to having some alone time to work on all the projects I never have time for.  Unfortunately, between working, errands and chores like watering plants, cleaning the litter box, etc, I STILL didn't have much time for anything else.  I managed a blog post on Monday, and some consignment sale  prep on Tuesday but that's about it.  I really wanted to do some scrapbooking and some organizing but it just didn't happen.  But it was nice having the house to myself all week, and having it still be clean when I got home from work everyday! Friday after work I packed up and joined them at Crescent Bar. Some other friends went over on Thursday and stayed until today at the campground across the street.  We all went in together to rent a pontoon boat for the afterno...

Last week was very uneventful.  It was our nanny's last week with us before heading back to school.  She took them swimming a few times and out to frozen yogurt. Te Sunday before last we went out to dinner with our friends John and Laura and their daughter Lindsay, who is a year and a half older than the girls.  We hatched a genius plan for this last weekend and it was executed brilliantly. On Saturday we met on Mercer Island to watch the Blue Angels (part of Seattle's annual Seafair festival).  Then we brought Lindsay home with us for a sleepover, allowing John and Laura to have a date night.  They were going to camp out in the back yard in a tent, but after Paul going through the trouble of putting it up, they decided not to after all! Then, on Sunday, John and Laura came to get all 3 and take them home for a sleepover at their place, allowing Paul and I to have a date night as well.  Win-win! For our date, Paul and I went to the movie...